The ongoing LA Weekly campaign is dipping its toes into the consumer-generated space with Blank Blankly, a section of their site that allows people to upload an image, add some text and, poof, create an ad similar to the newspaper's campaign that's been running for quite some time. Trouble is, once you've upload your image and make a mistake like we did, it doesn't appear you can edit it after the fact. And adding the copy? Well we gave up in frustration. Of course, it could be that we're just not that smart around here and the promotion is a great one. You decide.
Adrants reader Mike sent us this manifesto on why sex and advertising are two pools that just shouldn't mix. Apparently sex in advertising is an assault on religious freedom, a form of lying and prostitution, and a contributing reason why consumers are covetous. The central authority is the Bible, from which twelve reasons are outlined on why it's totally illogical and immoral to attach a luscious naked body or lascivious thought to ... well, burritos, for example.
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Forget about the hyper-anal editors at Wikipedia that are always taking down our clever little quips on supposedly "serious" topics like nachos or Marie Antoinette. The serious action happens at Uncyclopedia, where you can throw down your anecdotal knowledge about kitten huffing and the real goings-on behind PETA. Don't you love how this wiki thing enables us all to bask in collective wisdom about the shit that really matters? - Contributed by Angela Natividad
- Cynopsis reports "NBC has given a full season order to Friday Night Lights, starring Kyle Chandler. Thus far this season the show has averaged a 2.7/7 among A18-49 and 6.7 million viewers overall."
- We can't read "Brazilian"but Burger King Brazil has launched a contest that asks people to submit their own Whopper commercials mirrored after a currently running campaign.
- Commercial Alert's Gary Ruskin eloquently responds to the recent food industry self regulation announcement saying, ""Self-regulation is just another word for letting the fox regulate the chicken coop, which of course leads to dead chickens. Self-regulation has been a key ingredient in the childhood obesity epidemic. It is the problem, not the solution. The childhood obesity epidemic will continue until Congress passes tough new laws against marketing to children. Self-regulation is no substitute."
- Advertika has an interesting Flash video that has fun with the world's flags.
It's these kinds of contests that simultaneously make us both lose our faith in and heap praise on consumer-generated commercials. As if in some kind of ironic nod the Agency.com Subway debacle, Quiznos has decided to launch the Quiznos versus Subway TV Ad Challenge which asks people to submit their ideas for a TV spot to win $10,000. One thing we can guarantee for sure is this: Quiznos will get a hell of a lot less publicity on this than Agency.com did on their Subway endeavor.
We're convinced we told you this already but since a search through our archives gave us nothing, we're going to call it Deja Vu and tell you again. In an ad that's actually mildly funny, the NFL marketing board decides they need help after tossing around some frail ideas for the next Superbowl. Then the screen is molested by big letters that say PITCH US YOUR IDEA FOR THE BEST NFL SUPERBOWL COMMERCIAL. SERIOUSLY.
We're fans of the whole "involve your audience" thing but wonder if people will start thinking marketers are getting lazy.
Guess there's no harm in that. Once they get comfortable we can pounce on them like super-awesome ninja spider monkeys with our creative prowess, which will hopefully happen sometime before we all lose our jobs and go back to being occasionally witty baristas. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
- "Oh, great. Another frickin' release asking me to spend precious time that I don't have." These guys really want you to see their brand spanking new website.
- Capitalizing on the growth of online video and riffing off Bling's search and win model, WeWin offers viewers of videos a chance to win prizes.
- JWT Detroit pulls an Agency.com and rolls big while hunting for talent.
- People love Gears of War so much they're making their own commercials for it which will surely make it into every social media fan's presentation for the next six months.
- Consumer generated content is a great way for people to make money....as long at they pump out 1,000 hours of the crap.
McDonald's needs a lot of love now that Fast Food Nation is out, so we'd like to think customers who bother to write a song about them and then sing it to their droney drive-thru guy would get a better reaction. All the clerk says in response is "Um, I missed everything, just ... all I got was the M&M McFlurry part. $2.26 at the first window."
Come on. In the words of Heather from another controversial movie, did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?!! - Contributed by Angela Natividad
Swivel Media's Erik Hauser offers us this column on his in-depth experience with Second Life, ahead of the curve work for Wells Fargo and his companies creation of Stagecoach Island a virtual reality world based on Second Life. He offers sage advice to marketers with Second Life on the brain.
Retro-Marketing
Marketing to People in Their First Life
By Erik Hauser 10.25.06
I can vaguely recall the days when things were very different.
People spent their time in a world filled with oxygen. It seems just like yesterday - OH MY - it was yesterday! Let's take a trip down memory lane shall we? The date is Jan 1st 1997, and people are starting to spend some time on this thing called the internet. Within a couple of years there was a hyper-saturated web with niche sites that had everything from exclusive glues to websites designed as destination locations for people in their mid 30's that had an affinity for poodles. Certain people claimed they would never leave the house again, and vowed to radically change their behavior.
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If you've ever wondered why anyone would sit in front of a webcam, talk randomly about almost nothing and then upload it to YouTube for all to see, dive deep into the world of social media with this video about the whole trend. Sure, there's a bunch of wackos out there and most of the stuff is irrelevant but that's not the point. The point is, styles of personal conversation are changing and there's no going back. I once had an art director ask me to stop sending him emails because the notification of arriving emails distracted him from his work. Can you imagine a world without email? Perhaps there will be a day when we can't imagine a world without this new form of video communication.
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